Things to do in Leeuwarden

Aquazoo Friesland

AquaZoo Leeuwarden is the ideal destination for an outing or day trip in Friesland. The park is located in recreation area De Groene Ster making it surrounded by nature and water. At AquaZoo you will discover special aquatic animals such as seals and penguins, as well as land animals such as ring-tailed lemurs and red pandas. With educational presentations, adventure trails and various playgrounds There is plenty to do for young and old alike. This makes AquaZoo an educational and fun outing for the whole family!

Fries Museum

The Friesland Museum is a provincial museum that integrates audio-visual experiences and displays the long history and development of Friesland from multiple perspectives. Here you can learn about some of the local culture of Friesland.

De Alde Feanen National Park

Old Finen National Park has always been a protected area, protecting the local natural ecological environment and the wildlife living here. The park consists of vast swamps, elegant lakes, lush forests, vast pastures, and tranquil ponds. The diverse ecological environment makes it a good place for a variety of animals and plants to inhabit.

Oldehove

Oldehove is Leeuwarden's famous Leaning Tower, which is more inclined than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. There is a conference room on the top of the tower. Climbing the Leaning Tower can overlook the whole city and feel the Dutch "Leaning Tower of Pisa".

WTC Expo

Natuurmuseum Fryslan

Zwembad De Blauwe Golf

A Guide to Leeuwarden

Neushoorn

2026 Global 100 - Best Things to Do

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is located on Museumplein in Amsterdam and is a national art museum centered on Van Gogh's works, holding more than 200 of his oil paintings, hundreds of drawings, and a large number of letters exchanged between him and his brother Theo, a collection that ranks among the foremost of its kind worldwide. The origin of this collection is itself a story: after Van Gogh's death in 1890, the paintings were kept by his brother Theo; Theo passed away shortly afterward, and his widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, devoted her life to organizing and exhibiting these works, which had received little attention during Van Gogh's lifetime, ultimately bringing them together into this museum. The permanent exhibition lays out a clear viewing route in chronological order of creation: from the dark-toned "The Potato Eaters" of the Nuenen period in the Netherlands, to the numerous self-portraits of the Paris period, then to "The Yellow House," "The Bedroom," and "Sunflowers" of the Arles period, and finally to "Almond Blossom" and "Wheatfield with Crows" created in the last stage of his life in Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise, making Van Gogh's creative trajectory over a brief ten years clear at a glance. In addition to his own works, the museum also displays paintings and sculptures by contemporary artists such as Monet, Gauguin, and Rodin, many of which were personally collected by Van Gogh and Theo at the time; in Gauguin's "The Painter of Sunflowers," the protagonist is none other than Van Gogh, the painter of sunflowers. The building itself is also worth a closer look: the main building was designed by the Dutch De Stijl architect Rietveld and opened in 1973, with exhibition galleries unfolding layer by layer around an open atrium; the oval wing designed by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa was completed in 1999 and is dedicated to large-scale temporary exhibitions; and the all-glass entrance building opened in 2015 connects the old and new wings into one. The museum is consistently popular, with dense crowds during peak hours, so if you plan to take a close look at the permanent collection, it is recommended to allow ample visiting time.